POST-WAR FALLACIES

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 80, 5 April 1939, Page 12

POST-WAR FALLACIES

The War to End War SENDING THE OLD MEN (By New Zealand Defence League.) In these critical days, when the British Empire is faced with the gravest peril in its history, and when clear thinking has become so essential, it is necessary that some of the post-war fallacies should be removed. The Greatest Fallacy. The greatest of these fallacies, st often heard during recent years, is that the allied victory meant nothing, and it was therefore not worth while winning the war. This is answered very simply by pointing out that, while the victors continued to enjoy all their rights and privileges, Germany was disarmed and dismembered, lost all her overseas possessions and had to pay enormojis sums in reparations, and that the Powers associated with her had to sacrilii-e large portions of their territories. .Lt' Great Britain and her Allies had lost the war they would have suiTcred much greater penalties and to day much of their territories, including many of their overseas possessions, would have been under the rule of Prussian Militarism. What that means is being emphatically brought homo to us by current events in Europe. "Under the Berlin-Kome-Tokio axis it is the peril that forces us to-day. “Only Started in 1917." The next fallacy is that the Great War was a “war to end war” and that, becauso wars havo been in progress J almost continuously somewhere ever since, the nations have been deliberately deceived. The actual truth is that the “war to end war did not start until 1917, which was when America came into tho war. Actually the war then had been in progress for close on three years, and its aims and objects, so far as the British Empire was concerned, were the restoration of Belgium and tho crushing of Prussian Militarism. The Role of America. The phrase, “the war to end war/' was tho slogan with which America entered the war. Everyone naturally hoped that such a dosirable aim would be achieved. A sincere attempt was made by President Wilson to accomplish this by the Government attached to the Versailles Treaty and the establishment of the League of Nations at Geneva, but —it failed. The Disarmament Conference failed; Japan deiied the League in Mancbukuo and China; Germany rearmed; Italy defied the League ever Abyssinia, and when sanctions were applied by tho League against her they failed. So twenty' years after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles we have arrived at tho position we are in to-day., Tho truth is that the League of Nations never had a real chance of becoming effective. Another fallacy is to suppose that anyone can bind posterity. Traditions can be handed on to posterity, but posterity must take care of itself. No One Would Abide by the Result. Still another post-war fallacy is that if the old men were sent to war there would be no wars. The answer is that even if that could be arranged the .nation which sent the fittest men would win and no one would abide by the result. So it w r ould come immediately to a decision between the fit men of military ago of each nation. An equal misconception is that by being very vigorous in condemning war we shall do aw r ay with war. The trouble is that war may be thrust upon us whether wo like it or not. And—wo shall not even be consulted. It will come without notice, like a bolt from the blue. It has also been represented that the Great War was waged in order to “make the w*orld safe for Democracy’; and that this was fraudulent because democracy has vanished in so many countries since. The indisputable fact is that when the Allies won the Great War the world was made safe for democracy, but democracy has been bent so much sinco on having a good time that in many countries it has “sold the pass” to dictatorship. In the remaining democracies tho danger now is that, unless they take adequate precautions forthwith, they, too, may find that they have lost their rights and privileges. No One in Empire Desires War. No one in tho British Empire desires war, because they have no cause to do so. We have every possible reason for desiring peace, not only for ourselves, but for others. Wo want to develop tho highest possible standard of living for everyone with tho highest type of citizenship. We wish to continue all our rights and privileges, all the good things that have been handed down to us. We wish to hand these over to posterity, not only untarnished, but improved. But there are things for which the British Empire will light. It will fight for the retention of British liberty and all its rights and privileges, and it will light for a better ordered world in which the weak will have equal rights and privileges with the strong.